Yankees 5, White Sox 1: No second chances after second inning
On a day where the Pittsburgh Pirates were no-hit by the Cincinnati Reds and won, it didn’t seem so weird that the White Sox carried a one-hitter into the ninth while trailing convincingly. Then a second hit took the form of a two-run homer by Joey Gallo in the ninth inning, and that made it academic.
It’s only the second time in White Sox history that they allowed at least five runs on two or fewer hits — the other came against the Yankees on June 17, 1908, when they were the New York Highlanders — but this one doesn’t require a whole lot of explanation.
Basically, Michael Kopech lost control of his arsenal after retiring the first two batters of the second inning, and it decided the ballgame. He retired the first five batters of the game on 19 pitches, but needed another 32 before getting the third out. He went walk, single, walk, walk, walk before getting Aaron Judge to ground out to end the inning. The last two walks brought home runs, as did a wild pitch during Judge’s at-bat.
Fortunately he recovered to throw six innings on a reasonable amount of pitches, and after retiring Judge, he started a streak of 21 consecutive Yankees retired. Here’s how his day breaks down:
- Second inning: 1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 0 K, 1 WP, 41 pitches, 19 strikes
- Other five: 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 50 pitches, 31 strikes
The biggest question from here is whether Kopech is at all broken. His velocity started down and stayed down. He topped out at 96, but spent the second half of his start in the low 90s. He also generated just seven swinging strikes on his 91 pitches. It was a gutty effort, considering the Sox are looking at eight games over the next seven days, but those numbers are usually accompanied by greater concerns.
Ryan Burr threw a perfect seventh and Reynaldo López a perfect eighth. José Ruiz handled the first two outs of the ninth, but like Kopech and Joe Kelly before him, he also had trouble getting a third out. He walked Josh Donaldson, then misplaced a 3-2 fastball to Joey Gallo, who smashed a line drive into the first rows of the former Goose Island.
Adam Engel smashed his own line drive into the White Sox bullpen for the White Sox’s one and only run of the ballgame off Nestor Cortes in the eighth inning, but that only reduced the margin to 3-1.
Cortes, who entered the game with a 1.41 ERA and 42 strikeouts to 31 baserunners over 32 innings, showed why he’d been able to accumulate those gaudy numbers. He allowed just three hits while striking out seven, and he induced mostly routine outs, with seemingly every other one to Josh Donaldson at third base. He threw a career-high eight innings, and he threw 69 of his 99 pitches for strikes.
Bullet points:
*Five of the 10 members of the White Sox shown in the box score have averages below .200.
*The Yankees outscored the White Sox 32-15 over the four-game series.
*Oddly enough, the Yankees out-errored the White Sox 4-0.
Record: 16-17 | Box score | Statcast
Only the White Sox could give up just two hits and still get blown out.
Somewhere, Andy Hawkins exhales.
Well we all knew how this game was going to go since it was TLR “moron lineup day”.
Moncada had two hits and a homer Saturday, after a rainout Wed. Did he look tired? Or did he look like he might be one of the few players who might actually help them score? Even if they probably would not have won, I am fed up with TLR’s assclown lineup choices that undermine their chances before they even play.
The only thing I can think of is Tony is being paid to sabotage this season. What other reason could you have for sitting Moncada after playing 2 days in a row.
And if he really thinks he needs to take a day off from the field, why not have him DH?
The only guy who really needs a day off every 3 or 4 days is Tony.
Jim, your hitting bullet point is astonishing. These guys are not career sub .200 hitters. Not by a long shot. What the heck is going on?
PS: Why rest one of your hottest hitters –Moncada–against the best team in the AL? Rest him on Monday, if he needs rest. Or is he hurt?
What’s going on with Cueto? Is he coming up or opting out?
Last I read from Gregor, sounded like it was expected.
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20220512/is-cueto-slated-to-join-white-soxs-rotation-tuesday
But who knows. Sox like to create drama.
I don’t think anyone was looking to relive the 2021 ALDS but this series provided us that experience.
The Sox managed to squeak out a win by one run, and lost the other 3 by an average of 6. Yep, they’re about as evenly matched with the Yankees as they were with the Astros last year.
I knew the game was over when i saw that Cortez doesn’t throw harder then 93. One day the sox will learn how to hit guys who pitch rather then throw hard.
Considering how bad they’ve been in the field and at the plate, it’s amazing they’re right around 500.
I wonder when the last time the Sox fielded a lineup where batters 4-9 each had an OPS of less than .600?
Opening day doesn’t count.
Yesterday’s lineup, the bottom 4 hitters had a combined ops of about 1100
Any time Garcia, Harrison, and McGuire are all in the lineup together, it is going to be tough for them to win very often. Esp when some guys who are supposed to hit are struggling. I think anybody would be hard pressed to find a worse trio of hitters in the same lineup at any time this year, maybe in years.
This is very concerning. It is not cold anymore. Here in Ontario we almost reached 30 Celsius. So what’s the excuse?
So we all knew the Harrison/Garcia combo was going to be a zero. Tim’s been great, Robert and Vaughn have held up their side of the bargain, AJ has been better then the numbers are on the surface to me since the team rushed him back from the DL and had that stretch of nothing when he was still probably not 100%. And Moncada has returned hitting the ground running. Losing Eloy hasn’t helped gut we’re used to that by now and injury luck is something everybody deals with, Abreu not bouncing upward when the weather has warmed up has hindered the team as well.
However to me the “fulcrum” of the offensive struggles is Yas giving the sox absolutely nothing at the plate other then a few walks. I dont know if hes hiding an injury or decline has gone 0-100 on him but his hole in the lineup has caused a lot of innings from going from “runs before the poor back half make the outs” to “inning ending outs”. And him not playing behind the plate as much completely overexposed McGuire at the plate, also with Grandal taking bats at DH while Reece is catching takes plate appearances from guys who are okay to meh like Sheets or Burger when he was up.
Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but im a little sleepy but im not sleeping while game 7 hockey is on.
Good points. I have been wondering why is Grandal not catching enough games. The competitive advantage of Grandal’s signing was having him as a catcher. If he’s gonna DH, then his value goes down significantly, and more even if he can’t hit or get on base like he used to.
The White Sox are 2-4 on Sundays. I was thinking about TLR Sunday’s line ups and how they fared thus far.
I hate to say this, and maybe no one wants to hear it, but I’m pretty much done with this franchise. I’m a lifelong fan, but I don’t think I can stomach what the Sox are feeding us anymore.
We were told to be patient–put our faith in the rebuild and whizkid Ricky Hahn. And our patience was rewarded with an overage, out of touch, washed up manager and what might be one of the dumbest payrolls in all of sports.
If JR isn’t being one of the cheapest owners in the game (which he’s been up to now), he’s a brain-dead nepotist who brings in the wrong people and keeps them around way beyond their use. We’ve got Hahn, every year, blowing money on a handful of mediocre players instead of one or two real MLBers in their prime. This team’s roster construction is incomprehensible. It’s like insulting the fans once by signing Leury Garcia wasn’t enough; they had to sign him twice by bringing in Josh Harrison, too. And then there’s the bullpen–Shakespeare couldn’t write better tragedy, folks.
I know I’m screaming into the void here, but sometimes screaming into the void is all you can do.
At least I have 2005 in the recesses of my memory. Although thinking of that season brings up the painful, everlasting question–if KW and Hahn are so good at their jobs, why haven’t they been able to come even close to duplicating that success since?
It all starts with Ebeneezer Jerry, who is solely responsible for the manager they have and Hahn never being allowed to sign good free agents. One of the dumbest payrolls in sports, indeed.
I feel your pain, I’ve been thinking of moving on myself. It’s like a bad but predictable movie that isn’t all that worthy of attention. To let TLR manage this team is an insult to the intelligence and loyalty of this fanbase. Seriously. 2/3 of the people who post on this site could probably manage this team better from a tactical standpoint, certainly with daily lineups that are not completely asinine.
I remember last October after they were eliminated feeling dumb for wasting time following them so closely given the cheap and shabby way they run things and predictable result. I doubt this October will leave people with a different feeling. TLR makes a better outcome all but an impossibility.
Maybe they’ll let Tony go and replace him with Sparky Anderson or Billy Martin or another manager from the 1980’s.
Whitey Hersog would be fun- I’d like to see a Sox team steal 300 bases in a single season.
Jim Leyland!
Leyland might make a certain amount of twisted sense to Jerry. Leyland is younger than TLR (only by a couple months). I think symmetry would demand that TLR be hired at third-base coach if Leyland became manager in order to construct a bizarro parallel universe version of the 1983 White Sox.
Another possibility to consider is Jack McKeon. He’s two weeks younger than Herzog and his last managerial experience is 21 years more recent than Herzog’s.
Edit: I typed up this comment and the previous one being completely sarcastic but upon reading them I was alarmed to realize that these names are not out of the question for Jerry. They are not that much more ridiculous than hiring TLR.
Jim Rigglelman as a hitting coach, and the only 3B coach that makes sense is Bobby Valentine.
Keuchel and Kopech looked great. Moncada and Vaughn are back. Today is a new series. Let’s rock. Let’s start another win streak.
Yesterday’s lineup has no rationale. Cortez put the rivals to eat corn on his right hand. WSox doesn’t hit. Abreu seems to be finished. TLR has no idea who’s the best second in the line up. Grandal should play more as catcher. Why Moncada out yesterday? Doubtful the coaches work, at least those TLR friends as Cairo and Katz. Anyway, I suffer watching TV games since living 4000 miles from Chicago, but suppose how fans should be feeling there. Seems October isn’t for WSox this season.
My attempt at Monday morning sunshine.
I’ll try a contrarian opinion here. If the WS would have won Sunday, it would have meant a split with the hottest team in baseball and the beginning of a 5 game set with the Royals. Likely the mood would have been much more favorable. So in a 162 game schedule, one game in May (where they did hold the Bombers to just 2 hits) maybe shouldn’t generate so much dread.
That’s all I got.
It’s not about 1 game. They’ve scored 117 runs and given up 147. If they had scored 25 percent more runs than they allowed rather than the reverse, optimism might be more than just wishful thinking.
I appreciate the optimism, but the utter frustration I feel–to the extent I just have to walk away from this team–and the frustration shared by others is about habitual patterns of ineptitude. Terrible signings. Abysmal roster construction. Hiring a manager whose mind is warped by alcoholism and age as a mea culpa from 30 years ago. It’s too much. It’s makes it so hard–impossible for some–to get behind this franchise when ownership and management are too busy sabotaging their own efforts to put a team on the field–as promised–that could compete with the best of the best.
The Sox had a dynasty within grasp–a core of tremendous talent to die for–and, by the looks of things (from last year’s All-Star break to now), they’re letting it slip right through their fingers. It’s embarrassing, heartbreaking, and infuriating all at once.
Moncada not starting at 3rd was fine by me because the Sox are about to play 5 games in 4 days, and 8 games in 7, all on the road, and he just came back. The problem is that the rest of the lineup, which is generally overjoyed to see a southpaw, went down with little fight. Cortes did the same thing (even more so) vs the Blue Jays’ powerful righty-stacked lineup last time out, so I’m not super concerned about that showing yesterday. The Royals need to be put in the basement this week though.